My background is in freshwater ecology and evolutionary biology and I use both to study biodiversity, namely the processes of diversification and adaptation and the influence of environmental changes (e.g., climate, habitat). I also work on the development and application of genomics methods (next-gen. sequencing, evolutionary bioinformatics) to problems in environmental science. I have lived and worked in Germany, England, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Tanzania, Madagascar, New Zealand, and the USA and lead an international research group with a broad outlook.